Keep in mind that tires affect ride even more than wheels. Also bigger tires take pressure off the wheel making even weaker wheel last longer. For commuting I recommend at least 32-35c width tires.
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Ville MOct 11 '10 at 21:13

5 Answers
5

If you're doing mostly commuting I'd look for strength above light. Go for something with more spokes and with a 3 cross lacing pattern. You want something that is reliable. Of course you weight is a consideration so there is always a trade off between that and durability.

Going with something with radial (straight) lacing up front can save weight and you're less likely to break a spoke on the front wheel so there is less chance that durability will be a factor.

In googling this question I came across this article which shows that there is quite a difference between different tire types, also, whatever the tire type, increasing the pressure will reduce resistance (probably at the expense of some durability)

There was once a resistance test on BikeBoard magazine. The results were: rolling resistance is lower for wider road tyres, however the air resistance counterbalanced the effect for time-trials.
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dhillSep 19 '10 at 15:30

@dhill: Interesting. Do you have a link for that? It directly contradicts what I have always thought was the case.
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jilles de witSep 20 '10 at 8:41

Basically, narrow tires have more rolling resistance but less mass and less wind resistance. Higher pressure tires have less rolling resistance. Also, tread adds to rolling resistance quite a bit (and often narrow tires have none or little). It's possible that a high pressure narrow tire would have the same (or lower or higher) rolling resistance as a wider lower pressure tire. However, the larger tire would have more mass, and mass in the tire affects acceleration slightly more than mass anywhere else.
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freiheit♦Oct 6 '10 at 23:26